Last night, Impossible Foods unveiled their new Burger 2.0 at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The newest iteration of the alt-meat is made of soy and potato protein (not pea protein, as I guessed!), is gluten-free, and has fewer calories and fat than the first version.
After tasting our way through sliders, tacos, empanadas, and even tartare made of the new ground “beef,” we got to sit down with Impossible Foods founder and CEO, Dr. Pat Brown, to ask him a few questions about the topic that’s on everyone’s mind during CES: the future. Specifically, the future of plant-based meat.
“R&D has been going at a blazing pace since Day One,” said Brown. Which means as soon as they locked down the formula for Version 1.0 of Impossible’s patties and started selling them in 2016, they were already working on version 2.0 (and yes, now they’re working on 3.0).
While they plan to keep iterating on their flagship ground beef product, Brown explained that they’re also starting to work on what he called “whole cuts of beef,” including steak. “[Steak] has huge symbolic value,” said Brown. “If we can make an awesomely delicious world-class steak . . . that will be very disruptive not just to the beef industry, but to other sectors of the meat industry.”
Watch the video below to hear more about Impossible’s plans to tackle the $3 trillion industrial meat industry, and why they’re not worried about plant-based competition.
If you’re in Vegas for CES, be sure to hit up their food truck outside the Convention Center and taste the burger 2.0!